Measuring ionizing radiation in the atmosphere with a new balloon‐borne detector

Abstract

Increasing interest in energetic particle effects on weather and climate has motivated development of a miniature scintillator‐based detector intended for deployment on meteorological radiosondes or unmanned airborne vehicles. The detector was calibrated with laboratory gamma sources up to 1.3 MeV and known gamma peaks from natural radioactivity of up to 2.6 MeV. The specifications of our device in combination with the performance of similar devices suggest that it will respond to up to 17 MeV gamma rays. Laboratory tests show that the detector can measure muons at the surface, and it is also expected to respond to other ionizing radiation including, for example, protons, electrons (>100 keV), and energetic helium nuclei from cosmic rays or during space weather events. Its estimated counting error is ±10%. Recent tests, when the detector was integrated with a meteorological radiosonde system and carried on a balloon to ~25 km altitude, identified the transition region between energetic particles near the surface, which are dominated by terrestrial gamma emissions, to higher‐energy particles in the free troposphere.

The Scientific Observation Campaign of the Hayabusa-2 Capsule Re-entry

“…Two simple compact ionizing particle detectors were deployed at locations under the predicted trajectory (Aplin et al 2017). These are sensitive to all ionising radiation capable of penetrating the instrument housing, including gamma rays and X-rays.…”

The Reaction of Sulfur Dioxide Radical Cation with Hydrogen and its Relevance in Solar Geoengineering Models

“…The present models take into account several neutral molecules, their thermal reactions and photoinduced dissociation . However, ion‐molecule reactions may also play a relevant role in the chemical transformation of several species since, especially in the stratosphere, ionizing radiations are not negligible and much effort has been paid to determine the amount and nature of these radiations produced by cosmic rays and space weather events in the atmosphere . Typical average values of the neutral/ion ratio during daytime at mid‐latitudes in the stratosphere is about 10 12 , and it is independent by the type of molecular species because cosmic rays ionize all neutral molecules in the stratosphere with a similar efficiency .…”

The Reaction of Sulfur Dioxide Radical Cation with Hydrogen and Its Relevance in Solar Geoengineering Models

“…The present models take into account several neutral molecules, their thermal reactions and photoinduced dissociation [14] . However, ion-molecule reactions may also play a relevant role in the chemical transformation of several species since, especially in the stratosphere, ionizing radiation are not negligible and much effort has been paid to determine the amount and nature of these radiation produced by cosmic rays and space weather events in the atmosphere [15][16][17][18][19][20] . Typical average values of the neutral/ion ratio during daytime at mid-latitudes in the stratosphere is about 10 12 , and it is independent by the type of molecular species because cosmic rays ionize all neutral molecules in the stratosphere with a similar efficiency [19] .…”